Community Chat

[deepwaterdotter]

What are the qualities of a "rugged" person?  Maybe I know a few. 

[hopi]

Yes

[cherry]

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@deepwaterdotter wrote:

What are the qualities of a "rugged" person?  Maybe I know a few. 

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I would say robust, or vigorous

[Lesa]

I know many, and they can be described by the meaning of  Rugged individualism as I looked it up.

They are all kind, caring and hard working people.

[tansy]

After looking at the definition, I don't know any rugged individuals and probably don't want to.  

[Oznell]

This is an interesting topic.  I started thinking about old Hollywood, and how much of the appeal of the early male stars was bound up in the almost mystical American faith in the rugged individual..

That great American genre, the western, was full of these.  The nation was expanding, settlers went west, and many of them had to be rugged and rely on their own wits to survive...  Early in the movies there was Tom Mix, et al, and then a young guy named Marion Morrison developed his persona as "John Wayne".

John Wayne remains staggeringly popular decades after his death I think b/c of his individualism, of course.  But he also had a certain gallantry and tenderness, oddly, that came through and lifted him above other western heroes.

That's the frontier, Western version of rugged individualism.  The urban version in movies I would say resides in Humphrey Bogart.  He most often played urban men, but he had a solitary stoicism and a singular code that he lived by... 

Gosh, cherry, thanks for making me think, even if it is wayward, meandering thought!

[cherry]

I think many of them  were products of the depression ,and had to hit the ground running, to make  a living

[RedTop]

Yes, both sides of my family.   My dad's family was living in these mountains before WV became a state in 1863.  

[tansy]

My father, a WWII vet, had zero respect for John Wayne who did not serve in the military.

ETA:  I mentioned John Wayne because of the info that was in a deleted post.